Hello, I am having issues with a new processor I installed the other day. My system performance has plummeted dramatically. I can’t seem to validate what the clock speed is running at. I have everything set to AUTO in the BIOs. CPU-Z shows the CPU running at 3.4 MHz. AMD Overdrive shows the clock speed at 801 MHz with a multiplier at x4 not x17. I downloaded 3DMark Vantage and it also says a clock speed of 801 MHz.

I have also tweaked the multiplier in BIOs to x17.5 which should produce a clock speed of 3.5 MHz and reran all tests with the same results. I have tried it with ‘Cool n Quiet’ turned on and off. Any ideas…or am I approaching this the wrong way?

BTW, when I switched the processor out, all I did was drop the new chip in and go without any changes to the system (until I started troubleshooting). Did I miss a step here?

I believe 800 MHz is the speed it is supposed to run at when it is in its lowest power management state.

First of all, have you noticed an ACTUAL drop in performance in REAL applications, or are you just going by what AMD Overdrive and 3DMark are reporting? It is quite possible that they are merely reporting what the CPU is running at AT THAT TIME; if the system is very lightly loaded, then it is quite possible that it really is running at only 800 MHz when the tool is checking the clock speed.

I'm a little surprised that disabling CnQ made no difference.

Try running something to put some load on the CPU cores and see if AMD Overdrive and/or 3DMark still report 800 MHz.

Do you have the latest BIOS for that board installed?

Have you tried resetting the CMOS?

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

It turns out that I needed to update my BIOS. Once I updated to the most recent version, everything started working as expected. I was running the 'F2' version of my BIOS and I updated to the latest version...'F8'.